Make roads safe for all travelers

WHERE WE STAND:Officials should take part in discussion on improving roads for non-motorists.

It is time for New Jersey's counties and municipalities to put the pedal to the metal when it comes to making our streets more accessible to cyclists and pedestrians.

The state Department of Transportation announced last week that it will hold 12 workshops with county and municipal decision-makers to urge them to adopt what are called "Complete Streets" policies. In our region, the meetings will be May 4 in Eastampton for leaders from around Burlington County and May 8 in Lindenwold for leaders from Camden and Gloucester counties.

Officials from South Jersey municipalities should make every effort to attend one of these workshops to learn more about ways to make roads more accessible and safer for all.

Under the Complete Streets concept, new and reconstructed roads are designed to accommodate all users - pedestrians, cyclists and motorists. The policy is intended to give each group its own space. Twenty-six New Jersey municipalities and one county (Monmouth) have adopted Complete Streets policies already.

These policies remind us that there was a time, not so long ago, when communities were designed so that kids could ride their bikes safely to and from school, families could go on walks from their homes to local parks and people could make trips to the store without worrying about motorists crowding them out. Those experiences need not be relics of the past if more towns and counties start paying more attention to providing access for under-served groups of travelers who don't have cars.

The payoff of a Complete Streets policy for drivers, cyclists and pedestrians is safety and cost savings.

Not every improvement along these lines will further burden taxpayers. Improvements can be as simple and as inexpensive as striping for a bike lane or crosswalk. They don't have to involve costly infrastructure projects. And the program is not designed to force impractical models on towns.

New Jersey has 20 counties and hundreds of towns that have yet to adopt the Complete Streets model. These upcoming forums should convince more of them that the model is not merely a retrograde attempt to rekindle our bucolic past, but rather a forward-looking set of initiatives that will, in the long run, aid the environment, improve traffic safety, benefit public health and enhance a community's quality of life.

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Make roads safe for all travelers

It is time for New Jersey's counties and municipalities to put the pedal to the metal when it comes to making our streets more accessible to cyclists and pedestrians.